Inquest into man’s fire death

An inquest hearing has been held into the death of a man who died in a blaze at a former care home which sparked a murder probe.

Polish national Patryk Rafal Mortimer died in a blaze which started at the former Manor House care home, in Easington Lane, in the early hours of Saturday, November 3, last year.

Police officers received a report of a fire at the building in Pemberton Bank, High Street, at around 2.40am on the day Mr Mortimer died.

Mr Mortimer was pulled from the building, but was pronounced dead a short timelater,despitetheefforts of firefighters and paramedics to save him.

Police confirmed in November that they were treating his death as murder.

Six people arrested in connection with the fire on suspicion of murder have been released but remain under investigation, a spokesman for Northumbria Police confirmed.

A pre-inquest review hearing into 39-year-old Mr Mortimer’s death was opened and adjourned at SunderlandCoroner’sCourt.

City coroner Derek Winter said at a previous hearing that a post-mortem examination had been carried out but he was awaiting the results.

He told the short hearing: “For the record, the medical reports are not quite available so that I could conclude this part of my investigation.

“My intention is to adjourn for four weeks and I will sit again on Thursday, March 28 at 10.30am where I hopefully be in a position to list the case for a final hearing.”

Speaking a month after Mr Mortimer’s death, detective chief inspector John Bent, the senior investigating officer in the case, said: “We are treating this as a homicide investigation as we map out the sequence of events that led to Patryk’s death.”